The Tenchi Muyo series follows the life of Tenchi, a young man who winds up with several alien girls living at his home having some sort of affection for him. Throughout the series, Tenchi learns more about having his own powers and alien origins.

Tenchi Muyo is an anime franchise created by Masaki Kajishima and Hiroki Hayashi in the 90s. The series was originally created for an OVA series to be animated by AIC. The success of Tenchi Muyo helped them start several later OVA series, including El-Hazard, the original Oh! My Goddess!, and Battle Athletes.

In the United States, it also was one of several very popular anime series to be released here in the mid-90s.

The Story

While the series has several differing continuities, the basics of the series are the same.

Tenchi Masaki is an ordinary high school student in rural Japan, who with his father, a widower, and works and trains at his grandfather's shrine. One day Tenchi encounters Ryoko, a beautiful woman and an alien space pirate, who falls in love with him. Ryoko also has a living space ship, Ryo-ohki, which can also take the form of a cabbit, a cuddly animal that is half cat, half rabbit. Shortly after-wards, Ayeka along with her sister, Sasami, members of the royal family of Jurai come to Earth. There they also encounter Tenchi, and Ayeka falls in love with him as well, and begins fighting with Ryoko.

In the course Tenchi soon discovers that he too is part of the royal family of the house of Jurai, through his grandfather. He also meets Washu, a super-genius, and something of a mad scientist, along with Mihoshi (and Kiyone) of the Galaxy Police.

Continuities

The Tenchi Muyo franchise has multiple continuities each with different collections of series. Here are the main ones.

Kajishima Continuity

This is the main continuity that Masaki Kajishima is known for having involvement with as it mainly covers events of the Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki OVAs. Outside of anime adaptations, Kajishima has written and drawn a number of novels and doujinshi that expand on elements of the OVA continuity not covered in anime adaptations of his work.

Negishi Canon

Coming off the name of series director Hiroshi Negishi, this continuity consists of the first TV spinoff series airing in 1995 called Tenchi Universe, two follow-up movies called Tenchi Muyo in Love and Tenchi Forever, and a manga one-shot based on the Tenchi Forever movie known as Eternal Memory. This is the first series to offer alterations for a number of aspects to the major characters of the series.

Tokyo Canon

As the name should imply, this continuity consists of the second Tenchi Muyo TV spinoff anime called Tenchi in Tokyo that aired in 1996. Again, this one alters around aspects to the franchise's major characters.

Manga Continuity

This continuity consists of two series of Tenchi manga series created by Hiroshi Okada called No Need for Tenchi and All New Tenchi Muyo. The manga carries over events and character aspects from the first two installments of the Tenchi OVA series. However, events from the manga do not carry over into later animated installments of Kajishima's continuity for the Tenchi franchise.

Pretty Sammy Continuity

Coming off of Sasami's magical girl alter ego character from an episode of Tenchi Universe, Pretty Sammy would be spun off into two series that create an entirely new story and setting for the character: the Pretty Sammy OVAs in 1996 and Magical Project S in 1997. Both series have their own separate continuities, feature characters from the Tenchi franchise in differing roles and introduce several new characters such as Sasami's close friend Misao Amano and her arch-nemesis Pixy Misa.

Sasami Magical Girls Club Continuity

This consists of both seasons to another mahou shoujo series in the form of Sasami Magical Girls Club, which aired in 2006. The only returning characters from the Tenchi Muyo franchise are Washu, Sasami, Mihoshi and Ryo-ohki; all of whom having entirely different voice actors voicing their characters. The series is notable in that child voice actors are used to do the voices of Sasami and the younger characters for the Japanese version of the series. A separate manga series was made for Magical Girls Club months before the airing of the anime.

The table above highlights only titles related to Tenchi Muyo anime continuities and doesn't factor recent titles such as Ai Tenchi Muyo nor any of the mahou shoujo continuities spun-off from Tenchi Muyo.

Characters

Throughout the continuities, the main characters stay the same, though their personalities and powers vary somewhat.

Tenchi

Tenchi Masaki: Tenchi Masaki spent most of his life thinking he was a, more or less, ordinary kid. His mother died when he was very young, so he was raised by his father and grandfather, and spent a lot of time around his grandfather's shrine. He would later discover that his grandfather was actually an alien, a member of the royal family of the Empire of Jurai, and because of this Tenchi, and his mother before him, had inherited great power. The first of the other characters he meets (outside of his own family) is always Ryoko.

In OVA Continuity (Kajishima and Hasegawa) : Tenchi's great power is in the form of the “Light Hawk Wings”, a combined energy shield and beam weapon, which can normally only be created by a ship. In this version Tenchi cares for all the girls as friends.

In TV Continuity : Tenchi's Great Power is the Jurai Power, a special ability held by all in the Jurai Royal Family. In this version Tenchi has legitimate affection for both Ryoko and Ayeka.

In Tenchi In Tokyo : Tenchi is a full human in this series, with no alien heritage. Instead, Tenchi is the latest in a long line of defenders of the planet, who can use special jewels to create a magic sword. Additionally, in this version Tenchi rejects all of the girls, in favor of an ordinary human girl in Tokyo, and he asks them all to leave.

Ryoko

Ryoko & Ryo-Ohki: An alien space pirate, who travels around the galaxy with Ryo-Ohki, a living ship that can also transform into a cabbit, a cute and cuddly animal that's half rabbit, and half cat, and has a carrot fixation.

In OVA Continuity : Ryoko came to Earth after being pursued by Yosho in retaliation on an attack against the Jurai capital, 700 years before the series began. Yosho forced Ryoko to crash, defeated Ryoko, and then imprisoned her. At the start of the series she was accidentally released by Tenchi. In addition to being able to turn into a ship in this continuity, Ryo-Ohki can also turn into a girl around Sasami's age with the features of a Cabbit. She also possesses the ability to summon and command demons.

In TV Continuity : Tenchi meets Ryoko after she crash lands on Earth after fighting Mihoshi and Kiyone. Ryoko no longer can command demons. From a personality standpoint, she's less violent then in the OVAs, but her affection for Tenchi is deeper.

Ryo-ohki

In Tenchi in Tokyo : Tenchi meets Ryoko after she crash lands on Earth with the Jurai Light Stone, along with Washu, while being pursued by the rest of the main characters. Ryoko's personality is more violent then in prior versions of the character, but she's also more deeply in love with Tenchi.

From Left: Sasami and Ayeka

Ayeka & Sasami: Members of the royal family of Jurai. Ayeka's apparent age is 20, Sasami's is 10.

In OVA Continuity : Ayeka & Sasami came to Earth while looking for Yosho, her fiancee (and Tenchi's grandfather). She encounters Tenchi after discovering the energy released by Ryoko being freed. In this continuity, Sasami has the power of Tsunami, the Tree-Ship that is the parent of all the Jurai Tree-Ships, and is the most powerful of them all.

In TV Continuity : Ayeka and Sasami came to Earth after receiving a distress call from Mihoshi and Kiyone. Ayeka possesses the Jurai Power and is accompanied by two bodyguards, Azaka and Kamidake. Sasami, on the other hand, does not and by all appearances is an ordinary 13 year old.

In Tenchi in Tokyo : Ayeka and Sasami came to Earth attempting to recover the Jurai Light Stone. Rather than possessing the Jurai Power, Ayeka simply has a force field, and Azaka and Kamidake do the fighting for her. Additionally, Sasami is more aggressive and prone to get angry and later sulk if she doesn't get her way. Ayeka, on the other hand, is more accepting of Tenchi's “new girlfriend”.

Pretty Sammy: Sasami has her own separate continuity where she is a Magical Girl, called Magical Girl Pretty Sammy. Most of the other Tenchi regulars appear here with radically different personalities. However, this should not be considered a main part of the Tenchi Continuity. The Pretty Sammy character did make a brief appearance in Tenchi TV, during the "Adventures in Time & Space" episodes, which essentially consisted of a series of alternate universe stories.

From Left - Mihoshi, Kiyone

Mihoshi & Kiyone: Mihoshi and Kiyone are members of the Galaxy Police, currently teamed together. Their personalities, and presence in the series depending on the continuity. However, Mihoshi is universally clumsy in all continuities. Similarly, Kiyone is universally incredibly competent in all continuities in which she appears.

In Kajishima Continuity : Kiyone does not appear. Mihoshi is competent, though she is also clumsy, and disorganized in her life and her work, though she is also absurdly lucky. She originally arrived on Earth while perusing the space pirate Kagato (one of the series enemies), and crashed landed due to a vortex created by one of Ryoko's demons. Following that storyline, she's assigned to monitor Earth, and during this time she falls in love with Tenchi. She also lives with Tenchi and the rest of the girls in this continuity.

In Hasegawa Continuity: Kiyone appears in this continuity. As with Kajishima Continuity, Mihoshi is competent, though clumsy and disorganized. Mihoshi also falls in love with Tenchi, though Kiyone does not. Also, as in Kajishima Continuity, Mihoshi and Kiyone live in the Masaki household. Kiyone's role in the continuity is minimal.

In TV Continuity : Mihoshi crash lands on Earth while perusing Ryoko, and Kiyone comes to rescue her after receiving her distress call, finding her living in the Masaki household. Following Kiyone's arrival on earth, both Kiyone and Mihoshi are assigned to this sector, and Kiyone and Mihoshi move out of the Masaki household into a low rent apartment, and have to support themselves doing part-time jobs. In this continuity, Mihoshi's clumsiness is due to her being incompetent and ditzy, while Kiyone has to cover for Mihoshi's mistakes and correct her, making them a Manzai duo.

In Tenchi in Tokyo : The characters come to Earth while pursuing Ryoko and Washu. In this continuity, both Mihoshi and Kiyone have crushes on Tenchi. Mihoshi regains some of her luck from the OVA series, while Kiyone becomes something of a manic depressive.

Washu

Washu: Washu is a mad scientist, and one of the most intelligent minds in the galaxy. She is also older then Ryoko, and most other characters in the setting, though she takes on a child-like appearance. She also has the ability to create hyper-dimensional spaces, which she typically uses to build a lab in the closet under Tenchi's stairs.

In OVA Continuity : Washu is one of the oldest characters in the setting, being over 20,000 years old. Ryoko is her daughter, having been created in a test tube from Washu's own cells. Washu also is revealed to have had a biological daughter as well, the child was taken away from her by the father's family. Washu was imprisoned by Kagato, and is released on accident by Mihoshi. After this she moves to the Masaki house, to perform scientific research on Tenchi, while also falling in love with him.

In TV Continuity : Washu is the one imprisoned at the Masaki shrine, instead of Ryoko. She is released after a particularly violent fight between Ryoko and Ayeka. She isn't nearly as old or as powerful as she is in other series, though she is older then most of the other characters. Washu's personality is much more egotistical, and she has two small puppets that follow her around and compliment her in her moments of triumph.

In Tenchi in Tokyo : Washu is Ryoko's co-conspirator in the theft of the Jurai light stone. In this continuity Washu is still a mad scientist, though she's more mellow than in the other continuities.